Anji said:

which is neutered by the faux emotion of "Arms of Orion"..

sowwy..couldnt resist.

I regret that there wasn't another Prince / Tim Burton collaboration for Big Fish.

jn2 said:

I read that Prince recorded the entire album in 11 days. And something about Jack Nicholson not letting up until he got Prince to do the Soundtrack. He is a Huge Fan of Prince. And not to mention Lemon Crush (Kim Bassinger) that whole affair. She split off from Prince and Prince was bitter ( I read ) You remember... the same year she blasted the Oscars for shutting out Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing"
What about that "Scandelous Sex Suite" with Miss Bassinger. What really happened during the recording session? She good and those mones ~ And not to mention... The Bitch Can Scream !!!!!

Anji said:

No argument there.

Batman came out when I was 15yrs and I hadnt heard any prince before that.
I Loved Batman soundtrack and was obsessed ever since and started buying all his back catalogue and I know this sound dramatic but it changed my life so thank god for Batman. The scandalous and arms of orion are classics I could not live without. Also Friday nite would not be the same without coming home at 4am completely pisssed and listening to Party man...amongst others, my neighbours love me.!

zaara said:

Batman pretty much sparked my lifelong love affair with Prince's music too .
Its an excellent album , with all the elements I look for in a Prince album , sexuality , spirituality , a variety of musical styles , some confessional stuff , some throwaway party jams ,some plain mystifying lyrics and some lyrics that touch me . It was a big success too , its either his 2nd or 3rd best selling album ever I beleive.I love the movie too , it remains THE BEST BATMAN film ever , forget the dull Batman Begins !

Anji said:

Interesting. That's exactly the way the album was reviewed in a french magazine back in 1989 (forgot which one), and it impressed me to the point that it influenced my own thoughts about the record.
Still, the album is pretty weak, with Scandalous (and maybe Batdance) as its only saving grace.

I remember reading reviews declaring that the Batman album proved that Prince was no longer at the top of his game. Why, I still have those.

As a fan I found Batman a disappointment. Besides The Future, Electric Chair and Vicki Waiting, there was nothing else on the album that was really good Prince songs.

I kinda liked Batdance, but thought Partyman and Scandalous were godawful, yet I somehow like The Scandalous Sex Suite. I think it is much better than the album version.

Some of the tracks on Side B were so instantly forgettable, I can hardly recall the titles. What was it? Push? Thrust? Lemons Suck?

Knowing that Prince wanted to release Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic - but Warners thought it was too soon for a new album, but then Batman came along and Prince saw it as an opportunity to get a new album out instead of having to wait until Warners agreed the time had come for Rave - I can't help but think that Batman is one of the many majorly bad career decisions on Prince's part. He should have waited and released Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic instead. I think it would have been better for the fans and in the long run for his career as well. Judging from the track lists Uptown has revealed and the tracks that have been bootlegged, Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic would have been a far superior album to Batman and a more natural follow-up to Lovesexy.

But what is, is.

Anji said:

Actually, there's elements of that project that figured into his overall spiritual evolution... the "Partyman" character is, for example, a lot like the "Camille" from the Lovesexy tour, split personality & all. (see the half-masks)... and Camille, as a persona, prefigures as a persona...

It is what brought 80's Prince into 90's Prince.. It has a 90's feel but a 80's vibe.
Right b4 the New Jack Swing settled in. Prince was in his funky ass mode, but it still was coming loose from the 80's...things started sounding thinner i.e. Drum Machines, synths etc...

Most definately.



That's a matter of opinion and taste of the listener.



Come to think of it, I do remember it being successful. It just didn't blow up huge like "Purple Rain". I do remember all the Batman merchandise everywhere you looked. I also remember "Batdance" being a favorite in clubs. For the first time since "Purple Rain", club DJs were playing a current Prince song without making a joke about how horrible and "far out" the rest of the album was. Prince always rebels against his own success though, look what album followed "Batman" the next year.

I'm glad it was. Prince had finally come home from the fair....at least for a short minute.

What Batman did for me was show clearly that prince could make anykind of music he wants. I would have loved to see Prince play the Joker. He obviously would been THE character of the movie.

"The phone rings, it�s vicki callin�
She wants me 2 come 2 the crib
She says conversation�s better than being lonely
So I try my best to ad lib"

I have always loved the Batman album because 1989 was about the time when i started getting into Prince i had just started secondary school & a friend of mine was a fan, Scandalous & The Future would definately be up high in my all time list ..... both are classics , i have friends who think the same about these 2 tracks . Vicki Waiting is a great little pop track & Batdance will always have a special place in my heart (even Electric Chair & Lemon Crush are decent) ..... i aint even mentioned Partyman (one of Prince's best ever music video's - sheer class) ..... apart from The Arms of Orion which is weak ..... i really cant fault it !!
SOTT it aint ,but it's a damn sight better than some others i could mention & i agree with some of the other posts ..... HOW OFTEN NOWADAYS DO YOU SEE A SOUNDTRACK SET AROUND THE FILM LIKE THAT WAS & BY A SINGLE ARTIST?!
Commercially it was a success in a way as the album was number 1 in the US & UK as well as around the world ..... Batdance as a single was 1 in the US & 2 in the UK (it spent 12 weeks in the uk chart) .....

2 me Batdance was and is the only song 2 mesh all those sounds in2 one jam. He really nailed it with alotta of the tracks on the album 2. The future is just genius, as is the whole album. When something is ahead of it's time it usually takes a few years 4 society 2 catch up. When all is said and done this album will stand tall.

I was disappointed from the batman project cuz i was too far from the scene for the batman tour. Partyman is great, and the rest brilliant.

Anji said:

In a sense you are both correct.

"Scandalous" was recorded in the middle of the American leg of the Lovesexy tour, when Prince appeared to experience yet another one of those "epiphanies".

At that early stage, "Scandalous" was far from being intended as part of a promotional vehicle for a blockbuster of Batman's magnitude. The same can also be said for "Vicky Waiting" and "Electric Chair", both recorded way before Prince had even been approached by the people behind the Batman film.



.

buttcheeks said:

imagine if Nicholson is orger! hmm

HATE this album. It is lackluster crap. Sounds like a collection of lame outtakes ("Lemon Crush is one of my LEAST favorite songs by Prince). Only NPS is lower in my view.

The whole album is just...lacking. The songs all sound like things P could do in his sleep. Hell, half of them sound like things not good enough to be on a TC Ellis album.

Oh, and I don't agree at all that it didn't feature the spiritual themes of Lovesexy. All he did was dress up those conflicts with the Batman characters.

moonshine said:

Definitely the best Batman ever and Prince should have been the joker. I love the album and his look of that time. Oh Yeah Oh Yeah I wanna bust that body!

JediMaster said:

I agree. when it came out, I really forced myself to try and like this album, but never really could.

Listening to it again recently, it sounds like it took him about 5 seconds to write it. I think having to write the songs around the movie's 'characters' made for some really stodgy and uninspiring lyrics. I couldn't believe how crap Lemon Crush was when i reheard it. ONly 'Scandalous' really stands the test of time.

What was SO disappointing about this album was that it came after The Black Album and Lovesexy which were the product an artist in full white hot genius mode.

skywalker said:

Well, like I said, it's not Prince & Batman. But I was specifically responding to Nouveaudance's question was there ANY soundrack in the last 10 years by just one artist who wasn't in the movie. Yup, and it's a good one.

BTW, I think the music was horribly handled in Batman. As good as Tim Burton was, those musical scenes were positively unexciting. They would have been better with one of those god-awful MTV style directors of Batman 3 or 4.

pjcath said:

Couldn't agree more.

JediMaster said:

LOVE this album. It's atmospheric, moody, even eerie upon 1st listening, n eye still find it retains that uniquely Prince-like quality of quirky cleverness, not 2 mention a whole lotta fun vibe peppered thru-out.

1 thing it certainly is NOT, is a collection of outtakes.
Lemon Crush is 1 of my FAVOURITE 'strange' songs by Prince.

love

Anji said:

1234rave said:

"I gotta Jones baby"?? Where in that song do you think it says that?? Or are you confusing that with something in "Insatiable"? Don't be messing with my favorite Prince ballad, man!

The Batman soundtrack holds a special place in my heart and I think it gets a bad rap.

That being said, any1 who thinks that the 1989 film "Batman" is better than the 2004 film "Batman Begins" obviously knows nothing of the trueness of the character, compelling storytelling, or filmaking.


I didnt know I was playing in the cathedral...

Batman is regarded as the best comic flick up until arguably the latest batman.

Prince did good signing onto that one. And the music is timeless.

sosgemini said:

I must say, Arms of Orion makes me want to vomit.